Page 32 of Below the Deck

‘I love your earrings,’ said Eleni as they walked. ‘You have such great style.’

Talia’s eyes flickered sideways. Why was she doing this again – insisting on paying Talia endless compliments? ‘You’re very kind.’But please, stop.The endless flattery wasn’t endearing – it was irritating.

As they reached the top of the stairs, Eleni came to a sudden stop and turned her eyes upwards, fixing on something on the ceiling.

‘You don’t think they put cameras below deck too, do you?’ she murmured.

Talia flinched. ‘Pardon me?’

‘God, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to say that out loud. It’s just this feeling I keep having of being watched on the yacht – in my cabin, mostly. But maybe it makes sense – there’s CCTV pretty much everywhere, isn’t there?’

Eleni pointed up to a dome-shaped camera fixed above the entrance to the salon. From its position there, it would be able to capture the whole sweep of the room. Talia’s stomach churned.

‘I’m sure no one really watches it,’ she murmured absently.

‘I suppose not,’ said Eleni, with a shrug. ‘Just seems a bit pointless having it then, doesn’t it?’ She smiled at Talia, then strode ahead to join the others out on deck.

Talia sat next to Rory in the tender as Kai sailed the group – everyone except Nick – closer to shore, taking in the white sandy beach and vibrant corals of the bay near Fare village. The view anchored off Huahine was breathtaking. Of the islands they’d visited so far – Tahiti, Moorea, now here – this one might be her favourite. The sand on the beach was impossibly pale; the sea the most stunning, vibrant turquoise. And it was so peaceful, this bay – a true desert paradise.

With the tender docked at shore close to a yacht club, Kai helped everyone out of the boat and led them along the beach. From there, it was a short walk to the paved road of the village, lined with thick green foliage and dotted with low, cream-coloured houses and shops with brightly coloured fascias, some of them screaming brand names at passers-by.

After a few minutes on foot, they arrived at a bike shop, where seven bikes were lined up outside. Kai stepped insideand emerged a few moments later with a map for each of them, detailing the area surrounding Fare.

‘Okay, everyone, you’re going to be free shortly to explore the surrounding villages and hiking trails on your e-bikes – feel free to have your own adventures this afternoon!’ said Kai. ‘Some quick safety pointers for using your bikes in the area …’

Talia tuned out as he talked through the mechanisms of the e-bike, and took in the quiet buzz of the village around her. Four-by-fours tightly packed along the edges of the street, ferrying locals on their way to the supermarket. A handful of tourists strolling by, eyes fixed on the colourful store fronts, pointing and snapping photos with their phones.

‘Enjoy yourselves, and make sure you’re back here at this same spot at five o’clock to return to the boat. Everyone has a watch or a phone on them, yes?’

The group murmured their agreement, then began studying their maps.

Eleni was trying to catch Talia’s eye.She probably wants toask if she can join the two of us – God forbid.But Rory was already astride his bike, saying he didn’t need directions. ‘Shall we take a tour on our own, darling?’ he called. She looked at him. The eagerness in his expression was almost too much to bear.

‘Yes, of course. That will be nice,’ she said.And a blessed relief to get away from some of his colleagues.

She put on her helmet, climbed on her bike and – with an excited squeal, she’d never ridden an electric one before and the way it glided forward with such minimal effort made her laugh with surprise – rode with her husband away from the others. Just Talia and Rory, alone.

After twenty minutes of riding, taking them away from the village centre and upwards on a small path that climbed into the nearby hills, Rory began to slow to a stop. ‘Wow – just wow. Look at this view!’

They’d reached a clearing in the trees, and beyond it, the South Pacific stretched blue and still for miles. ‘Shall we stop and sit in the shade for a few minutes, take it all in?’

She observed her husband: his cheeks were pink and sweat had turned his polo shirt into a sopping clump that clung stickily to his chest and shoulders. He was clearly struggling with the heat, but far too proud to admit it.

‘Yes, of course,’ she said. ‘I could do with a bit of shade.’

Rory hopped off his bike and laid it down gently on the grass; Talia followed suit. They sat down, nestled their frames inside the curved roots of a nearby mape tree, its wide trunk solid against Talia’s back. As the hum of their bikes faded, they were encased in the dense silence of the lush hillside, only gentle gusts of wind through leafy branches and the faint chatter of nearby birds reaching her ears now.

‘This is glorious, isn’t it, darling?’ said Rory, taking hold of Talia’s hand.

Talia looked at her husband – really looked at him. She saw the try-hard, eager-to-please boy behind the facade of the high-powered man. She saw the subtle eye-rolls in response to his poor jokes; the awkward ways he tried to ingratiate himself with people; his out-of-touch attempts to show his care for those he loved.

Shame and regret and the blood-curdling terror of exposure gnawed hotly in her stomach, curdling together in a vile, broiling mess, exactly as they had done every day for the past few months.She dug her long nails into the palm of her hand, then gasped in pain: she looked down and saw pinpricks of blood.

Damn. She’d managed to cut herself. She stared at the oozing red drops in horror, then pressed a finger down onto her palm to stem the flow.

‘You’re bleeding, my love. What happened – did you cut yourself on one of these spiky roots?’

‘Gosh – I think I must have done.’ Talia blinked away her hot tears, felt a rush of gratitude for her thick sunglasses.What the hell is wrong with me – what am I doing? Surely I don’t want to hurt myself …